I’m back to training, and this fall I’m concentrating on running the half marathon and 10 km distance. It’s a refreshing change from the last few months of focused marathon training. One of the biggest changes is a change of focus in my long run. During marathon training, my long run was a hard effort, perhaps the most important workout of the week. These runs usually left me rather zombie-like for the rest of the day, ravenous, and in bed minutes after we put our toddler down for the night. In my recent training, my long runs have shortened in length (respective to marathon training), and importantly, have changed from training mainstay to a supportive run for my other intense efforts.

This sounds like an easy change, and like it should be a cinch to implement. It turns out though, that it takes considerable effort to control my impulse to hammer my long runs marathon-style! I find it especially difficult to run my own relaxed pace when I am with the excited folks of the Dukes Track Club: they have so much positive energy and running excitement that I just want to gun up and run with my friends as they throw down mile after mile at twenty-something-male pace! This weekend I took my long run as a solo effort, and was glad I did: I took my long run relaxed, enjoyed the quiet solitude and fresh air of the morning, and was able to move through the drowsing landscape effortlessly, on target for my pace, and confident in having executed my workout as it was intended, as a long effort, but leaving me with spring in my legs for the weeks upcoming really hard efforts!

What aspects of training have surprised you in their difficulty? What are your strategies for dealing with unexpected physical or mental training twists?  What parts of training do you find yourself completing with unexpected ease?

Run Happy, all!

#RunHappy #longrun @RunMagdalena